


And Not Abject Enough Either

by sylviarachel



Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Bad Poetry, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-16
Updated: 2012-05-16
Packaged: 2017-11-05 11:13:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/405769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sylviarachel/pseuds/sylviarachel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What Ekaterin might, if things had been slightly otherwise, have been able to bribe Pym to steal from Miles's wastebasket.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And Not Abject Enough Either

**Author's Note:**

> One day I was re-reading this:
> 
> _Dear Madame Vorsoisson, it began. I am sorry._
> 
> _This is the eleventh draft of this letter. They've all started with those three words, even the horrible version in rhyme, so I guess they stay._
> 
> _Her mind hiccuped to a stop. For a moment, all she could wonder was who emptied his wastebasket, and if they could be bribed. Pym, probably, and likely not. She shook the vision from her head, and read on._ \-- _A Civil Campaign_ , chapter 11
> 
> and this poem happened. Fortunately, it says right there in canon that Miles is also a terrible poet.

Dear Madame Vorsoisson,

I am sorry. I should not have tried  
Base subterfuge to keep you at my side.  
You were not a ship to be hijacked,  
But I did not think such a crooked-backed,  
Ugly, hyperactive, dwarfish man  
Could justly earn the honour of your hand;  
Some better man would sweep you off your feet,  
Ivan, Zamori – at least not Vormoncrief! –  
And I would have no brave Ekaterin  
To be the next Lady Vorkosigan.

Seeing you smile beneath the open sky,  
I wanted to rebuild what was destroyed;  
To own the gift of your unerring eye  
That calls up beauty from the formless void;  
And to possess the honour of your heart,  
Courage that broke conspiracies apart  
And would have made the final sacrifice  
To save Barrayar from that vile device.

Fearing to lose you, body, mind and soul,  
I didn't want to see the enormous hole  
In my great plan: that victories can't be gifts.  
Your garden could have been, to me, a gift  
That was a victory; instead, I made  
Your heart's desire into a snare for you.  
For this, as well as sorry, I'm ashamed.

I love you. No doubt it's too late to say  
How much, how well – how earnestly I pray  
That as you spread your wings and find your place  
I might again be blest to see your face.

Yours to command,  
 _Miles Vorkosigan_


End file.
